Samantha Yun Wall

Samantha Yun Wall is xispa's inaugural artist in residence, joining us from June through December 2026. Born in Seoul and based in Portland, Wall creates drawings and mixed-media works that explore the psychological and emotional dimensions of transcultural identity, with an emphasis on the feminine perspectives of diasporic experience.

Her work has been shown at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Portland Art Museum, the Frye Art Museum, and the Seattle Art Museum, which awarded her the 2024 Betty Bowen Award.

Wall's practice is deliberately analog, rooted in graphite on paper and ink on clayboard, and her residency asks what happens when a traditional practice meets new tools. With xispa, she will develop a new nanoparticle ink and explore ways of embedding storytelling into two-dimensional work, surfacing the histories that get overlooked or erased.